There’s no doubt that the original version of TeamViewer — a free OS X and iOS app that lets users remotely commandeer another user’s Mac (with their permission, of course) and troubleshoot stuff — is a Big Gun for any Mac troubleshooter or wannabe Genius (or hey, maybe even the real Geniuses use it).
Apple has released two new updates today that improve support for processing raw image files from recently released digital cameras and provide enhancements and bug fixes for Apple’s audio/video production tools for professionals.
Keyboard launcher Alfred just got updated to 0.9, and there’s a lot of lovely stuff included.
Most of the new features are for users of the optional paid-for Powerpack, but there’s some nice bits for free users too.
Got a second-generation Apple TV? Get it while it’s hot: a new update has just hit Apple’s update servers.
Wow. Is developer GhostBird really shoe-horning this much functionality into the second iteration of their legendary photo-editing app, PhotoForge? Looks like they’ve crammed practically every post-processing tool and feature on the planet into what will probably amount to an under-$5 app: curves, real layer support (including masking), ability to edit raw files (and images up to 20MB), editing timeline and a big pile of sharing options.
Add to that a smorgasbord of filters that simulate papers, processes, cameras and you’ve got the makings of what looks like the killer photo app. GhostBird also claims fast processing times — how they’re able to pull this one off, and just how fast it’ll clock on the slower processors of the 3G/s is the big question, though; we’ll know in a couple of weeks, the timeframe the developer has suggested for the app’s release.
Karelia Software announced a major upgrade to the company’s flagship Sandvox product Tuesday, making it possible even for CEOs to quickly and easily build a website.
Far simpler than Dreamweaver yet more flexible and robust than iWeb, Sandvox 2.0 is designed for Mac and brings fully competent web design within the realm of possibility for those with nothing more than a desire for presence on the Internet and a vague idea of what it should look like.
Its palette of stock site designs aren’t especially cutting-edge but what Sandvox does offer is clean and uncluttered, with a range of inoffensive color themes that should appeal to the wide audience of individuals and small business owners who may be flummoxed by an infinite variety of web-publishing platforms — and don’t want to pay an actual web designer to build an attractive, functional website.
Who wants to sift through all this text crap when you could just watch a video? If your answer to that question sounds something along the lines of “not me,” you should probably download Showyou onto your iDevice during your next coffee break — just don’t blame us if your boss fires you because you spend the next five hours watching clips on it.
The app elegantly aggregates all the videos that your contacts on Facebook or Twitter have posted, and also from its own Showyou network that can be joined via the app. Sharing clips looks just as elegant and effortless.
Showyou looks good on the iPhone, but gets drool-worthy on an iPad with videos from feeds laid out in a seamlessly swipeable checkerboard. Bonus: It plays nice with an Apple TV.
In the history of technology, most successful formats go from a nascent birth phase to market popularity with the assistance of a Killer App. A major program, activity or use for a new technology that drives rapid adoption of the medium.
The Apple II had VisiCalc. The IBM PC had Lotus 1-2-3. With the Macintosh came PageMaker and desktop publishing. Arcade Games had Space Invaders. Xbox had Halo. VHS had porn.
Many technologies have benefited from porn, actually. It’s a pre-internet fad.
But there is no one Killer App for the iPad. There are dozens of categories of uses, thousands of apps. The iPad started out popular, then became a phenomenon. But nobody can agree on what it’s best used for.
Mowing the lawn is the outdoor equivalent to vacuuming your carpet: it has to be done regularly, and most people put it off. But now you don’t need a riding mower with dual-cupholders to impress the neighbors while being slovenly. Husqvarna has just introduced an iPhone app for remote deployment of their Automower robotic lawnmowers with GPS Communication Units.
The Automower works by following a thin wire laid on or under the grass. Using SMS Text Messaging, you can display the location of your mower on Google Maps, tell your machine when to start and stop, return for a charge, or check current operating status. There’s also a GPS Theft Tracking feature in case your mower ventures too far away under somebody else’s control. Would that be called Find My Lawnmower?
Doing yardwork from the couch gets my vote! Or it would, if I had a lawn…
[via TG Daily]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS1iXdqOVC8&feature=player_embedded
With the Flock browser going the way of the dodo, there’s really only one social-media-enhanced browser left: RockMelt. And yesterday, they released an iPhone version of the browser.
RockMelt is pretty handy for those of us who like to post news and blog posts straight to our Facebook and Twitter feeds from the web on our iPhones. It also functions as a basic newsreader, and It’ll sync with the browser’s Mac version so you can access bookmarks and posts that have been tagged with its “View Later” feature. Best of all, it’s free.
It happens to everyone. Over time, large files will build up on your hard drive and take up space needed for important files, such as photos, music, and the like. It can be frustrating trying to find these files to see if they are of any importance. Enter OmniDiskSweeper, a free utility that solves all those problems. As you’ll see in this video, it’s a handy tool that can help you free up a lot of space.
Image editing application Acorn has been updated to version 3, and now comes with a boatload of new features for you to play with.
If possession of any one app could ever be considered an instant ticket to membership in the Cult of Mac, this is it. Mactracker has been around since early 2001, and we’ve talked about it before on our site (Giles Turnbull thought it was so fantastic he included it in his list of 50 Mac Essnetials); but last week a newly-updated version hit the Mac App Store — which is enough to earn it a spot as today’s Daily Freebie.
The app lists painstakingly complete data on every Mac product ever made in an elegant, searchable, easy-to-use interface. The new update even brings with it the ability to track your Macs’ serial numbers, service work performed, etc.
The app is free, but we think a little donation at the app’s website (which is where those who’re allergic to the App Store can also download the app directly) is money well spent.
Doubtless because creeps look indistinguishable from the pizza delivery guy on the iPhone’s tiny, standard-def screen, Logitech yesterday released an HD, iPad-version of their remote CCTV app, Logitech Alert. The app allows the user to monitor hi-def feeds, complete with “rich audio,” from an installed Logitech Alert CCTV camera system over the Internet.
While the app is free, the hardware starts at $300, and lets you observe a live feed from your iPad or iPhone; you can also view footage recorded onto your computer’s HD directly. An extra $80/year will net you the full Monte, allowing remote review (with an iDevice) of recorded footage from your computer’s HD.
The App’s page states “please use Wi-Fi for the best video and audio performance and experience,” which we’re assuming means the service will function over 3G, albeit most likely with hobbled performance.
Seriously: Imagine your kids being able to play around with all the wonders of physics — without the fear they might slice off a finger (or two), or burn their eyebrows off.
That’s the basic idea behind the brilliant Xperica HD for the iPad, a physics sandbox that lets high-school kids (or anyone, really) make sense of physics through playing with interactive experiments. The first four modules are free, with $4 netting the remaining half-dozen set of physics experiments.
While the first set is all about physics, the developer told us they’ll soon have experiment sets in other spheres of science (like chemistry) available soon, with some modules in each sphere being released for free — and that they might make all the modules free at some point (which might make one hesitant to buy the extra modules, we think, but there ya go).
Uninstalling software under Mac OS X is generally a straightforward procedure — just delete the program from the Applications folder. Few vendors offer uninstallers on the Mac, and generally they’re not necessary. Most programs don’t run background components or alter system settings files (like the Registry on Windows), and leaving old preferences and support files on the hard drive generally doesn’t do much harm.
But if you are trying to remove an old or corrupt component, reinstall software to change a serial number, or just free up disk space, removing all components of the old application can be important. These components include the application itself, preferences and support items, and sometimes hidden files or kernel extensions. Anyone who’s had problems installing an Adobe CS application or removing Symantec AntiVirus will appreciate how hard it can be to fully remove old software.
If you haven’t downloaded free MPlayerX yet, do it now. The newish player (it;s been around for just over a year) is the perfect balance between simplicity and performance. It’s the player QuickTime should have been — it’s simple, it’s pretty and it plays absolutely anything you throw at it. It has features like multitouch control via a trackpad that allows you to not only jog control — in a way that makes QuickTime seem awkward and clumsy — but also control volume. Here’s a full list of features from the app’s Mac App Store page:
Update: Final Cut X will be $299 and will be available in the App Store in June. Still unknown are the future of Final Cut Studio (Including Soundtrack, Motion, Compressor, Color, DVD Studio) or Express.
Apple is, at the very moment I’m writing this, taking the cloak off of Final Cut X live and to much applause in front of the Final Cut Pro User Group Network in Las Vegas. For several weeks there have been rumors and murmurings that Apple would today unveil the next iteration of its venerable Final Cut video editing software, we’re learning now those rumors were true.
Final Cut users know that the last major update the software had was about 10 years ago. Though many users love the program, it was getting so long in the tooth it was starting to look like a vampire.
Details of the new Final Cut X are still coming in since the unveiling isn’t over yet, but one attendee at the event is posting updates via twitter (thanks @fcpsupermeet). Here are some notables from his twitter stream:
Via macrumors.com.
What’s better than a free app? Yeah, two of them — so today’s Daily Freebie is actually a twofer. Both are from MacPhun, developer of the PhotoStudio app we reviewed yesterday.
The first is a free version of PerfectPhoto, macPhun’s iPhone photo editor. It may lack the fancy filters of the paid version, but it comes with all the darkroom tools you’ll need to edit photos on the iPhone: adjust exposure, contrast, color temp, shadows, crop images and even a posterize and vintage effect. Frankly, you’re going to be using PhotoStudio for the effects anyway.
The second app, Cartoonatic, (that’s a screencap from its App Store page, above) is where the real fireworks are, though — it’ll let you transform a video clip with nine different, wild-looking effects, with live previews while recording, the ability to play around with the clip’s speed, add a soundtrack from your music library and all kinds of other neat stuff. That’s a lot of wow for free.
These may not be the worst of times, but they’re not the best either. So the folks who make Geotrio Tours, an iPhone app that allows users to become virtual tour guides, think that awesomeness should be rewarded — they built a feature in their virtual tour app that allows people who go on the user-made tours to tip their guides, all from within the app.
The tours use the iPhone’s GPS to guide tourists along a set route, with photos and audio automatically popping up at predetermined points along the route. If they enjoyed the tour (and if they’re not cheap sods), at the end of the tour, tourists can leave tips for the guide. Virtual guides can make tours of anything they want, for free, at Geotrio’s website, or via their free TourRecorder app. There’s also a paid, pro version for the likes of big institutions.
No one’s going to make a million bucks off the app (if your tour is that good, send me a link), but it might net you some money for time invested in a fun little project.
Okay, this is sorta creepy — and if you aren’t aware of this little fact by now, you should be: Unless you’ve adjusted the settings to turn this feature off, every time you snap a photo with your iPhone it embeds data with your exact location in the image file. This data, called a geotag, can be easily read using easily available software by anyone who has access to your images online (btw, contrary to what the folks at NBC say, it’s not new technology; the ability to geotag photos has been around since at least the first iPhone to include GPS, the 3G).
It’s no secret that the iPad 2 should open the floodgates of the augmented reality experience — and here’s another example of what the iPad 2 can do with AR.
No doubt in anticipation of Yuri’s Night, Vito Technology has just released an AR-equipped version of their venerable star-watching iPad app, Star Walk ($5). Just hold the screen up to the sky and the app will superimpose constellations and all sorts of other info onto a realtime image of the sky being viewed through the iPad 2’s camera. And that’s on top of all the other cool features, like a satellite tracker, night mode and a time-machine function that lets you see what the sky looks like on any given day or time.
Still saving for an iPad 2? That’s ok, the iPhone version has the same features (but not the awesomeness of the iPad’s giant screen), and it’s on sale for a buck till April 12 — which, not coincidentally, is Yuri’s Night.
Just like Pogoplug and ZumoCast (the latter currently MIA from the app store), Tonido is a service that’ll let users stream media and access files on a computer from a mobile device. It sort of combines features from both — it’s completely free, works via a mobile app that connects to server software (free download from Tonido) running the user’s computer and allows access to music, videos, photos and even plain ‘ol documents. In fact, pretty much everything on a connected hard drive is accessable.
The big difference with Tonido though, is that virtually nothing is stored in a cloud — not even your account password (“think of the Tonido server like a giant router” says co-founder Venkat Ramasay). Don’t want to use your computer as the server? Tonido sells a remarkably-Pogoplug-looking NAS device for $99 that you can plug an external HDD or USB stick into. Ramasay says the software footprint is also very small, and that’s it’s also intended to run on home routers. The next version will also support Airplay.
The interface seems a little rough around the edges — I wasn’t able to stream music because I couldn’t figure out a way to simply select music to play, for instance — but it’s free, so worth taking a look at.
We’ve been keen followers of developments at CloudEngines, the outfit behind the Pogoplug network-attached storage device, ever since we reviewed the first one back in late 2009. This month, a little over two years after the Pogoplug debuted, brings a whole raft of new offerings from the company — including one that may bring a big surge to NAS popularity in general.
If you’re lucky enough to posses an iPhone 4 and haven’t already downloaded freebie Ball Pit, do it now and play around with it a little. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
Pretty cool, right? For those of you at work or still saving for an iPhone 4, the game is basically a first-person shooter set in the middle of a what looks like a holodeck from the later Star Trek shows, with the objective of shooting down the spheres that happen to be floating around in the big room with you.